The present invention is an improvement over prior art electrolyte pickling processes and particularly the process of U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,758. That patent discloses a method of electrolytic pickling characterized by the use of an aqueous electrolyte containing at least one neutral salt and having a pH of from 1.0 to 7.0. In the practice of the method disclosed in the patent, the anode and the cathode are arranged in a single, bi-polar cell containing the electrolyte. Since both the anode and the cathode are contained in a single bath, current can travel between the two electrodes thus lowering the electrical efficiency of the descaling operation. Electrolytic pickling is carried out at relatively high temperatures in order to increase efficiency. When the anode and the cathode are in the same bath, the entire bath must be heated even though only the portion of the pickling cell where the steel article acts as an anode is effective in descaling.